Sykes-street is situated in Sculcoates and the road still exists
today, although many of the structures have been modern-
ized. Sykes-street was laid out in 1800 and named after the
builder, Joseph Sykes of Westella. Sykes was a merchant
who imported iron ore from the Baltic.
CONSTABLE CON O’KELLY ARRIVES: Constable O’Kelly
was known to many as George Cornelius “Con” O’Kelly, Sr.
He was born on October 29th 1886 in Gloun, Dunmanway,
Cork, Ireland, and died in Hull on November 3rd 1947. It
has been claimed that O’Kelly arrived in Hull in 1903, but a
search of the police oficers in Hull Police at the time shows
Cornelius O’Kelly joining the Hull Police Force on Septem-
ber 18th 1902, and not 1903 as previously stated.
His obituary, published in The Hull Daily Mail, dated Mon-
day November 3rd 1947, states that he came to Hull and
joined the Hull City Police Force on September 18th 1902,
where he remained until February 25th 1909. The obituary
also states that for some years he worked as a ireman with
the ire brigade.
He was assigned the badge number 249. He was well
known for being an Olympic Gold athlete, bringing the
Gold Medal home from the 1908 Olympic Games for
wrestling!
SO, WHAT ABOUT THE HAUNTING?
According to the stories the house was haunted because
of a death, and that death was either named Gilson or
Gibson. I had to track down the death and see if I could
ascertain who had died and when.
I decided to search the death registers that cover both
Hull and Sculcoates for the period but given that multi-
ple names are given in the different newspaper accounts,
I decided to search for Gilson, Gibson, and O’Grady
deaths in Hull and Sculcoates in 1908.
Investigations showed that no Gilson deaths were reg-
istered in Hull or Sculcoates in 1908. Investigations
showed that no O’Grady deaths were registered in Hull
or Sculcoates in 1908. Investigations showed the follow-
ing Gibson deaths recorded in Hull and Sculcoates, they
are as follows,
Name Age District of Registration
Alexander Gibson 54 Sculcoates
George Gibson 74 Sculcoates
James Gibson 43 Myton
Llewellyn Gibson 22 Drypool
Percival Gibson 58 SculcoatesWith ive possible names I decided to narrow the ield.
Using the September 5th 1908 article as a starting point,
it was evident that the incident must have happened
around this date, the later articles state that the man, who
it is thought haunted the property, was buried on the Fri-
day before. Narrowing the search for deaths in the July-
August- September quarter of 1908 revealed that no Gibson’s died in
this quarter in this year. With little to go on, and press reports making
mistakes in names and surnames, it became dificult to ascertain any
facts of the matter.I also decided to search the archives of the Hull newspapers, at that
time multiple newspapers were published in Hull, covering Hull, East
Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire, but after searching in the ar-
chives and in the digital archives, I failed to uncover a death match-
ing the details in the newspaper reports about the haunting.Contemporary sketch of the alleged “Haunted House” that appeared in the
Hull Daily Mail, dated Monday September 7th 1908. Sketch Copyright Mike
Covell.
Con O’Kelly Senior as featured in he Hull Daily Mail dated Monday No-
vember 3rd 1947 at the time of his death.Mike Covell is a local historian and author based in Kingston upon
Hull. He has previously appeared in Most Haunted, Paranormal
Lockdown, Prime Suspect Jack the Ripper, and advised on the hit
BBC 2 show The Bombs that Changed Britain. Mike writes for Hull
Daily Mail, Hull Hub, and various magazines and newspapers, and
teaches, lectures, and runs walking tours covering all aspects of
Hull’s history. He is the author of the popular Mike Covell Investi-
gates book series and has recently released his UFO volume entitled
Mike Covell Investigates the UFO Files.